Made For Each Other
by TwinFlame06
Summary: It was inevitable they'd find out who the other was eventually. Ladybug-Marinette just never expected the circumstances to be the worst possible. This new fateful experience turns everything upside down and inside out.


Ladybug had once used her lucky charm to save her partner from turning into a Cat-sicle after the citizen turned villain-of-the-day: LadyWifi locked him in a freezer. Then when the five minutes to de-transform were nearing their end, he'd grabbed her arm and asked her to stay. She'd refused.

"No one can know who we are, not even us" She'd proclaimed.

Even as she said so, in the deepest recesses of her heart, she'd always known that one day, that private reveal to each other would be inevitable.

This, however, wasn't the way she'd anticipated…...

She hadn't expected to have to drag Cat-Noir's weak and battered body into the nearest empty building as his ring flashed the de-transformation warning. She hadn't expected to be sitting on hardwood floors with him in her lap. She hadn't expected burning hot tears to be streaking down her face as she frantically tried to cover the hole made in his chest. Nor had she expected one simple motion of his hand over her wrist to cause her to stop in her tracks. She noticed now, that while she was heavily soaked in his blood, it wasn't showing on her red suit. The realization just made the weight of the situation all the more unbearable. She looked in his pained green eyes and closed her own before opening them again.

She certainly hadn't expected to feel as if she deserved to be selfish for a moment. The Akuma was still out there, but just this once it could wait! Paris could wait, the world could wait! Saving countless other lives could wait because just for the moment, the only life that mattered was the one about to end in front of her. Ladybug was not going to leave her partner to fade and suffer alone and that was that!

"Cat…..you idiot! Why'd you do that!?" Ladybug screeched. Her head lowered far enough to just barely touch their heads together. "Why do you always have to do that?" her voice softened, but the desperate plea within it remained.

* * *

It seemed the millionth time Cat-Noir had taken the blow for her.

The Akumatised civilian dubbed HeartCrusher had been about to plunge a bare fist into her back. Her name was yelled in a warning and she couldn't so much as blink before the sickening sound of skin tearing and bones cracking assaulted her ears. Not even a split second later and the blood-curdling scream of Cat's agony followed.

Ladybug's heart had quickened then in a speed she hadn't even known it could and her jaw clenched so hard that one might wonder if teeth could drill into each other. She wasted no time in using her lucky charm.

It had been early, unbelievably so. Where the Akuma was hiding had yet to be sussed out and so HeartCrusher hadn't yet been defeated. Only distracted and delayed so

Ladybug could tend to her partner.

* * *

"What else was I going to do?" Cat-Noir answered her. His voice was a rasp that she strained to hear. He coughed and a tiny drop of blood peeked out from the bottom right corner of his mouth. The hand not resting atop Ladybug's wrist shook as it rose with great effort to cup her cheek. "There's camembert….in my jeans...right side pocket. Feed Plagg, won't you?"

As if on cue there was a short flash of light and the Kwami serving as Cat-Noir's suit and claws was suddenly beside him. The boy in Ladybug's lap was revealed and she bit back a wail at the recognition of Adrian.

Adrian rasped out another request and Ladybug complied immediately. Her lips hovered above his ear and it was her Kwami's turn to withdraw itself from her as she simultaneously whispered the information she knew he'd craved to know since the day their partnership formed. "I am Marinette"

A wry smile tainted by pain and fatigue spread across Adrian's lips. "I told you we knew each other"

Marinette couldn't help but laugh through her tears at the irony. She had been head over heels for Adrian since the day they met and fended off Cat's advances not realizing that they were the same person the entire time. In turn, he'd been just as infatuated with Ladybug not realizing she was Marinette. In her eyes, this was too perfect or purrfect as Cat would say. Perfect and horrible and fate was cruel and two people became one and she was about to lose both of them.

This wasn't right! It could have been her-should have been her and it wasn't fair!

A tiny, weak tug on her shirt and Marinette bent down once again. Their lips melded together and she felt him genuinely smiling into it. "I love you, my lady" the words were as faint as a breeze and she tasted tears between their lips. She pulled away to find he'd closed his eyes and gone limp.

"Cat?" Marinette tried "Adrian?" when there was no response she collapsed onto his chest with heaving sobs, not caring about the blood staining her cheeks. She knew she still had work left to do as Ladybug and perhaps she'd already taken too long, but she needed to collect herself and that was easier said than done.

This was not okay and would never be okay. How could she have let him do that so many times?! She squeezed her eyes shut for a second and took a long shaky breath. She rummaged through the pocket Adrian mentioned had cheese. Only after retrieving it did she open her eyes again. She sniffled as she withdrew herself from atop the fallen hero. She placed one last gentle peck against his temple before turning away from him. "Goodbye, Kitty…."

She tossed the camembert towards the tiny black creature known as Plagg who didn't seem very dry-eyed himself. He took sluggishly slow bites, stopping every few nibbles to glance at Adrian in disbelief, but he refrained from speaking.

"Marinette…?" a high-pitched voice questioned.

Marinette dug a cookie from her own pocket and held it out to the other tiny creature in the room, this one pink. "You need to eat something too, Tiki" while the kwamies recharged, she took another drawn out-breath as she slipped the ring from Adrian's finger and onto her own. She teared up again and wiped them away, but that was no use, more replaced them.

"Plagg, what's the transform code?"

"Claws Out." Plagg answered, "but…"

"I know. It needs to be passed down to a new Cat-Noir. That's fine" She lied. It wasn't fine. No matter how much effort the new person would put into the role, they'd only ever be an imposter that she could never work with. How dare someone else steal his name and parade around with his suit and claws?! The thought was absurd! Her Cat was gone and he couldn't be replaced. "I just need to borrow it first" she finished.

"You have a plan, Marionette?" Tiki asked and Marinette nodded.

"I do. We're going to finish this thing with HeartCrusher quickly….and once we de-evilise that Akuma" Marinette's eyes narrowed and she stood. A strand of stray frizzy blue hair fell over her right eye "We're going straight to HawkMoth!" The miraculouses possessed by Cat-Noir and Ladybug supposedly contained some sort of ultimate power when wielded together. This is what HawkMoth was after? Fine. Marinette A.K.A Ladybug would bring it right to him.

"Tiki, spots on" Marinette shouted and she was wearing her Ladybug outfit once more. She stared at the foreign ring around her finger and bit her bottom lip. She could do this. She had to. "Plagg, Claws Out"

Suddenly a hat containing Cat-Noir's ears fastened itself snuggly atop Ladybug's head and a glove resembling a claw fit itself over one of her hands. The final touch was the gold bell around her neck that was much smaller than it had been on Adrian. She ran her fingertips over the new additions to her suit.

"Alright. Let's do this!" Ladybug declared and left the building.

Marinette had always known she and Cat-Noir were destined to find out about each other. What she hadn't expected was for the 'how' to be one of the worst possible ways. Hawkmoth used an innocent civilian to take away her partner, her friend, and the love of her life and he was going to pay.


End file.
